<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Faded Whispers of Wisteria by Leaf-Groot (Tavina)</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24309268">Faded Whispers of Wisteria</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/pseuds/Leaf-Groot'>Leaf-Groot (Tavina)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bloodless - Tavina, Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Contemplative, Gen, Talk of Weddings, future snippet, gratuitous flower imagery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:49:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>793</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24309268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tavina/pseuds/Leaf-Groot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after Yasino becomes the Daimyo, he and Hana have a conversation.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Inuzuka Hana &amp; Yasino | Kageyoshi Hiruyasu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Exchange no Jutsu 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Faded Whispers of Wisteria</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticaltorque/gifts">mysticaltorque</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/640342">Bloodless</a> by Tavina.
        </li>

    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He sees Hana coming up the path to the pavilion in the garden, trailed by three large wolf-dogs, perhaps a little bit before she notices his regard.</p><p>But then, it is hard to tell that sometimes with her nowadays. No longer is she the little child with bright-eyed ambition hotly chastising him in the street, or the same girl who had yelled at him for his backhand attempt to gain an apology through a cup of tea, however unwittingly it’d been given.</p><p>No, Inu-hime is older now, more sure of herself, with straight shoulders and steel in her spine, blood red lips and bloody fangs on her face.</p><p>“Yasino-nii,” she ducks under a trailing wisteria vine, and comes to sit beside him, a flick of her wrist, a spark across her black gloves warming the tea, before she pours him a cup, holding back one long red sleeve as she does so, “long time no see,” and offers him his cup with both hands, wrists straight.</p><p>Oh, she’d written often, progress reports and letters and stories and even what seemed like a few quotations, snatches of poetry she’d toyed with in the margins of her letters, but it <em>has </em>been a while since she was in the capital, and an even longer time since he had reason to visit Konoha.</p><p>The clans had grown more unruly as of late. The longer the harem is empty, the more they fretted and worried, the more they made suggestions about their daughters and nieces and sisters and even vaguely unattached female relatives.</p><p>But then, he had chosen this chair a long time ago, and now, he has to sit in it.</p><p>“It has been a while.” He accepts her teacup with one hand, nail guards clacking idly against the porcelain, reveling in the small comfort of warm tea, even if he had been kept waiting for just a tad longer than normal as Inu-Hime fought through the bureaucracy and those who wished to question her policies to arrive. “I’ve missed you, little sister.”</p><p>It’s a rare show of emotion, but he indulges in it anyway, because these days he rarely has reason to indulge in the softer emotions at all — the admission of “I’ve missed you,” “don’t make me worry,” “I love you,” — titles and tasks and thrones have stolen them all away, but today, he indulges.</p><p>“I’ve been busy.” It’s a simple enough statement, encompassing all the distance between them, ten years, seven hundred miles, the separation of worlds. “But I couldn’t miss this.”</p><p>He hums, as the wind rustles through the wisteria blossoms above them, trailing all down around the pavilion. “It’s a rotten business, truth to be told.”</p><p>The dogs at her feet stir at that, as if listening to his words.</p><p>“Getting married?” She turns to him, the red wings of her eyeliner stark against her tan. She is not what court would think of when thinking of “wolf-woman,” but he knows well, despite the friendly way she now treats his courtiers that her smiles could turn sharp, revealing fangs. “Yasino-nii, don’t tell me you don’t believe in the idea of a happy family and children of your own?”</p><p>
  <em>After all, you love Naho-chan so well. </em>
</p><p>He tilts his head back, watching the purple wisteria sway in the wind. “Oh, Hana-chan.” He almost laughs. “Why would filling the harem ever be a happy occasion?”</p><p>Oh, they could dress it up as a happy one, make it into a farcical celebration of love and matrimony, but in the end, all it will ever be is a decision made out of duty and sacrifice, one man split into a multitude of parts, consorts enough to fill the back harem and whisper in his ears.</p><p>And yet, to hold his seat, and yet, to keep his peace, did he really have another choice?</p><p>“Mmm.” She leans her head against a hand, looking across the garden at the pond where even now, an evening lotus bobs on green water, a blush of pink among the lily pads. “No, I can’t imagine the traditional eight wives would please you at all.”</p><p>He takes another sip of his tea, lets the scent of roses fill him and considers something else besides his wedding tomorrow. “Tell me of Konoha these days.”</p><p>“There is so much and yet so little to tell.” Her right hand drops, and briefly rubs at the wire thin scar on her neck, just barely hidden by the collar of her furisode. “There’s a storm coming, Yasino-nii, but I don’t know the shape of it yet.”</p><p>So the rumbling of war from the north will not be contained by Sarutobi Hiruzen then.</p><p>“I see.” He nods and pours them another cup of tea. “That sounds pleasant.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>:)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>